Battle of the Beanfield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.
The Battle of the Beanfield was an incident in 1985 when Wiltshire Police prevented a convoy of several hundred new age travellers from setting up the fourteenth Stonehenge free festival in Wiltshire, England. It became notorious for the police brutality reported to have taken place.
Contents |
[edit] The events
After gathering for the previous night in Savernake Forest, the Peace Convoy set off on the morning of Saturday, June 1. There were between eighty and 120 vehicles, most of them buses and vans that had been converted into living spaces by their owners – new age travellers. In total there were several hundred people in the convoy, including a number of families.
A legal exclusion zone had been declared four miles (6.4 km) around Stonehenge, and the convoy hoped to breach this and spend the solstice in sight of the henge.
The police set up a roadblock about seven miles (11 km) from Stonehenge, by tipping three lorry loads of gravel across the road. When the convoy halted at this blockage, the police moved down the lead vehicles, smashing windscreens and arresting the occupants. As a result, the majority of the convoy attempted to flee by driving through a hedgerow into a nearby grass field. Some convoy vehicles rammed police vans.
The convoy found themselves trapped in the field, and unable to continue their journey towards Stonehenge, and the police refused to allow them to return to Savernake with their vehicles.
There were attempts to negotiate between the police and the convoy over several hours. Wiltshire Chief Constable Donald Smith ordered the arrest of all the members of the convoy, stating that he was convinced that the convoy was intent on breaking the exclusion zone that had been imposed around Stonehenge by English Heritage. Thus the only thing the police were willing to negotiate was the possibility of a peaceful surrender where everyone was arrested; it is likely most would have then been released without charge.
There was a standoff for about eight hours, between 11:00 a.m. and 7:10 p.m. At one point during this time there was a short outbreak of violence in which one member of the convoy received head injuries. An ambulance was allowed through to take him to hospital.
A police helicopter began to fly low over the site. Members of the convoy used small hand mirrors to reflect the sun into the eyes of the pilot causing the helicopter to withdraw.[citation needed]
After further light attacks by the convoy, the police, many in riot gear, entered the field on foot. This gave the convoy a couple of minutes' notice that an attack was imminent, and many tried to escape in their vehicles, crossing over into the adjacent beanfield, but travelling over rough field terrain their vehicles were so slow that they were all quickly overtaken by policemen on foot. As a result, almost all of the members of the convoy were arrested.
Convoy member Phil Shakesby later gave his account of the day:
- "The police came in [to the grass field] and they were battering people where they stood, smashing homes up where they were, just going wild. Maybe about two-thirds of the vehicles actually started moving and took off, and they chased us into a field of beans.
- "By this time there were police everywhere, charging along the side of us, and wherever you went there was a strong police presence. Well, they came in with all kinds of things: fire extinguishers and one thing and another.
- "When they'd done throwing the fire extinguishers at us, they were stoning us with these lumps of flint and such."
There were many similar reports from the travellers, which were denied by the police. Most independent eyewitness accounts did however relate that the police had used violent tactics against men, women and children, including pregnant women, and purposefully damaged the vehicles used by the convoy.
Official figures said eight police officers and sixteen travellers were taken to hospital with minor injuries. One traveller suffered from a fractured skull. Local MP Robert Key, who had witnessed the events, said the lack of injures showed that no excessive violence was used.
The miners' strike ended earlier in the same year, and comparison was made with the tactics were used by the police during the strikes. The news section of the Police Review of June 8 1985 reported "The Police operation had been planned for several months and lessons in rapid deployment learned from the miners' strike were implemented."
[edit] Media coverage
Media coverage and the resulting record of the events was limited because only a small number of journalists defied the directive to stay behind police lines, at the bottom of the hill. Wiltshire Police stated that this was to ensure the safety of the journalists.
Photographic evidence of the actual police action is extremely scant. Freelance photographer Ben Gibson, engaged by The Observer that day, was arrested on charges of obstruction. Although he was later aquitted, the arrest removed him from the scene. The Observer later lost the negatives during an office move.
Another freelance photographer, Tim Maylon, was chased from the field by police.
ITN reporter Kim Sabido, recorded an emotional piece-to-camera:
- "What I have seen in the last thirty minutes here in this field has been some of the most brutal police treatment of people that I've witnessed in my entire career as a journalist. The number of people who have been hit by policemen, who have been clubbed whilst holding babies in their arms in coaches around this field, is yet to be counted. There must surely be an enquiry after what has happened today."
When broadcast that evening, the voice-over was removed, as was footage of the more contentious police acts. According to Sabido:
- "When I got back to ITN during the following week and I went to the library to look at all the rushes, most of what I'd thought we'd shot was no longer there. From what I've seen of what ITN has provided since, it just disappeared, particularly some of the nastier shots."
Since that time some of the missing footage has been rediscovered, and was incorporated into the Operation Solstice documentary shown on Channel Four in 1991.
Nick Davies reported for The Observer:
- "There was glass breaking, people screaming, black smoke towering out of burning caravans and everywhere there seemed to be people being bashed and flattened and pulled by the hair. Men, women and children were led away, shivering, swearing, crying, bleeding, leaving their homes in pieces."
[edit] Legal action
Nearly six years later, twenty four of the travellers sued Wiltshire Police as a result of the damage to themselves and their property.
They were only able to take action against the police force - it proved impossible to pursue charges against individual police officers as none of the riot police involved had been wearing identifying numbers. Despite this, one police police sergeant was convicted of causing actual bodily harm to a member of the convoy.
The police radio had been recorded, and was used in evidence against Wiltshire Police. It was to prove inconclusive as there were gaps in the recording at vital points.
The travellers had left from Savernake Forest, land managed by the young Earl of Cardigan on behalf of his father. Lord Cardigan decided to follow the convoy on motorbike, together with his friend John Moore.
Lord Cardigan witnessed the events, and later testifed in court against Wiltshire Police, saying that he had seen a heavily pregnant woman being "clubbed with a truncheon." He was criticised as an unreliable witness by several national newspapers. On Monday June 3 1985, the editorial in The Times even went as far as to state that being "barking mad was probably hereditary." Lord Cardigan started legal action against The Times, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror for their attacks on him, and received written apologies and damages from each.
Lord Cardigan also described how he was approached by the police at the following day, who wanted permission to remove travellers who were still at Savernake:
- "They said they wanted to go into the campsite 'suitably equipped' and 'finish unfinished business'. Make of that phrase what you will, I said to them that if it was my permission they were after, they did not have it. I did not want a repeat of the grotesque events that I'd seen the day before."
After four months of hearings, twenty one of the travellers were successful in their case, but the judge refused to award their legal costs, which took away the vast majority of the £24,000 winnings.
Their barrister, Lord Gifford QC, stated "It left a very sour taste in the mouth."
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- BBC News report
- Battle of the Beanfield - Ten years on
- Tash's 'Battle of the Beanfield' photo galleries
- Tash's 'Battle of the Beanfield - the full Tale'
- BBC News 'On This Day - June 1st'
- A Criminal Culture?
- Andy Worthington - 'The Battle of the Beanfield'
- The Battles for Stonehenge
- Urban75
- Lyrics to 'Battle of the Beanfield' by The Levellers
